enter #2 April 2014

ENTREPRENEURSHIP PLATFORM COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL

Entrepreneurship researcher, Professor Mirjam van Praag was recently appointed Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller Professor of En-trepreneurship at Copenhagen Business School (CBS). The appointment aims to strengthen CBS’ research and education activities within entrepreneurship. Mirjam van Praag’s weighty research is centred on what makes entrepreneurs successful – nature or nurture – as well as the impact of entrepreneurial edu-cation and the effective composition of start-up teams. Some of her recent research suggests that environment, or nurture, has a strong effect on entrepreneurship, which, in her view, is a good motivation for policy and education initiatives that foster entrepreneurship.

By Irene Houstrup

PORTRAIT Entrepreneurship Professor Mirjam van Praag was rather pleased when one of her recent research projects, a large study of adoptees in Sweden, showed that not only genes but also environment determines entrepreneurship. The study of the entrepreneurial outcome of adoptees found that both biologi-cal parents (nature) and adoptive parents (nurture) have a strong effect on entrepreneurship. Yet, the effect of the adoptive parents is twice as big as the effect of biological parents.

‘This shows us that nurture, or environment, is important. Fur-ther investigation suggests that the nurturing parents affect their children by being role models,’ says Mirjam van Praag and adds:

‘It would be discouraging for policy makers and educators in entrepreneurship, had we found that nature affects entrepreneur-ship, and nurture does not. However, evidence of the fact that the environment plays a large role is a better motivation for both pol-icy and education fostering entrepreneurship.’

Is entrepreneurship nature or nurture?

Mirjam van Praag, The Maersk McKinney Møller Professor of Entrepreneurship, is looking forward to contributing to further developments within the field of entrepre-neurship at CBS.Photo: Christoffer Regild

2IS ENTREPRENEURSHIP NATURE OR NURTURE?

Tel: +45 3815 2663entrepreneurship@cbs.dkwww.cbs.dk/entrepreneurship

enter Entrepreneurship Research and Education Magazine enter Entrepreneurship Research and Education Magazine is a new online magazine from the Entrepreneurship Platform at CBS. enter aims to offer quick and accessible insight into entrepreneurship research and knowledge at CBS and to bring the research and educatio-nal landscape at CBS into a more intense dialogue with business and society. The enter magazine is published twice a year and is free of charge. Reproduction allowed and encouraged with indication of source.Please see www.cbs.dk/entrepreneurship

CBS ENTREPRENEURSHIP PLATFORMCopenhagen Business School (CBS) established the Entrepreneurship Platform in spring 2013. The platform integrates and coordinates entrepreneurship research, education and outreach activities at CBS and is a single point of entry for entrepreneurship at the Copenhagen Business School.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP PLATFORM COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL

Porcelænshaven 18B, 3rd.floor2000 Frederiksberg. Denmark

From labour economics to entrepreneurshipOriginally trained as an econometrician and interested in labour economics, as a PhD student Mirjam van Praag was intrigued by the 10 percent of the workforce who are not employees and who, as entrepreneurs, have a greater impact on growth, innovation and employment than the remaining 90 percent. Ever since, her research has focused on what it is that makes entrepreneurs suc-cessful. She studies the effects of heredity and environment in re-lation to entrepreneurial success, the impact of education as well as the effect of teams and behavioural characteristics of entrepre-neurs, among other areas. Recently, she has become interested in behavioural differences between entrepreneurs and managers.

The Endowed Chair at CBSOn January 2014, Mirjam van Praag was appointed Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller Professor of Entrepreneurship at CBS, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, as a part of dona-tion from the ‘A. P. Møller og Hustru Chastine Mc-Kinney Møllers Fond til almene Formaal’. The Foundation has donated 40 mil-lion Danish kroner to the establishment of an Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship and thus provided CBS with the opportunity to strengthen its research and education activities within entrepre-neurship. This great opportunity encouraged Mirjam van Praag to move to Copenhagen Business School from the University of Amsterdam, where she has been a full professor of Entrepre-neurship and organization since 2005. She has been the found-ing director and academic director of the Amsterdam Center for Entrepreneurship (ACE), a research and education network of all institutions of higher education in Amsterdam that offers training and coaching to students and entrepreneurs. ACE has also ini-tiated research in entrepreneurship and has been very active in disseminating the research to policy makers, entrepreneurs and other interested parties.

Wants to encourage connection between entrepreneur-ship and innovationMirjam van Praag is looking forward to contributing to further de-velopments within the field of entrepreneurship at CBS:

‘In Holland, I had a managerial role and much of my work had a very external orientation. I was part of advisory and supervisory boards for the Dutch government and for private companies. I was the key representative of ACE, responsible for its outreach activ-ities. At CBS, the Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller professorship gives me the opportunity to conduct more research together with my new colleagues at CBS,’ she says and continues:

‘Working mainly with entrepreneurship, I am excited to learn more about innovation research from the researchers here at CBS. Furthermore, it is my objective at CBS to encourage more connection and cross-fertilization between entrepreneurship re-search and innovation research. Entrepreneurs are often respon-

sible for radical innovations, whereas innovation is a driving force for many entrepreneurs.’

Research shows that mixed teams perform betterMuch of Mirjam van Praag’s extensive research is based on

field experiments, and her research is widely published in inter-national academic journals.

Among her current research projects is research into team com-position in connection with entrepreneurial ventures, since most ven-tures today are not initiated by one person but by a team of people:

‘The entrepreneur as a lone wolf is falling out of fashion, and we therefore need to study the composition of teams as a driver of business success. And our findings show that a team’s diver-sity is a significant determinant of its performance. For instance, teams with a more equal gender balance perform better,’ she says.

‘Another research project is a study of entrepreneurial couples in Denmark, where we investigate why many start a company with their partner,’ she adds.

Getting the message acrossAn important role for business universities like CBS, according to Mirjam van Praag, is to help stimulate a climate where the best people are inspired to become successful entrepreneurs.

‘I think the Entrepreneurship Platform at CBS can play a huge role in getting the message across to decision-makers and trans-lating the research done here in order to educate and stimulate entrepreneurs. Furthermore, I believe it is important to communi-cate even more and even better about the research done at CBS to stimulate the infusion of more research into society and com-panies. And I believe that this chair, the Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller professorship, can support this.’